As Long As We Live
by LadyAnnachronism
Summary: A year after marrying Sam, Sookie realizes she made a mistake. She is scared to leave him, fears being alone but what better excuse than an apocalypse to give you the kick in the - you need to find the one you love? Winner of DAY OF THE DEAD contest.
1. Part 1

**_Note from the author: Hello all! This is my second story and was an entry to the Day of the Dead contest hosted by the Area 5 Bloody Pen group. I tied for first place and I was beyond excited. There will be another 2 parts to this story. Don't hesitate to let me know what you think._**

 ** _Happy halloween_**

 ** _Annalise_**

Rated M

Present day

"NO" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Johnny had raised his machete above his head while Frank was holding my arm out with his free hand. I kept on yelling to stop, that I was not infected, that it was not their choice to make. Johnny had closed his eyes repeating to himself mentally to do it. I knew he was trying to find the courage he needed to chop my forearm off.

"Please," I begged, "You don't know what one bite will do. I am sure I can fight it, just watch me, you will see! " I exclaimed still crying from the stress and the fear that I was about to lose my arm and then I would have to face the 50/ 50 chance odds that I will either live to tell my story or get an infection and die anyways. "Give me a fucking chance!" I yelled in desperation.

"Sookie! No one is immune! You don't understand. You don't know what happens when you get bit. The bacteria, it will eat you up until you die and you open your eyes again" Frank said while holding me a bit tighter. "This is giving you a chance!" he added putting an emphasis on the word "is".

Johnny took a deep breath; I closed my eyes and I screamed everything I had in me as the blade descended upon my arm.

Day Z – (minus) 14 days

 _It seems the attack originated from within the hospital. Two Caucasian males attacked staff members before making their way to the street where the rampage continued. Preliminary reports indicate they were infected with the rabies virus that has mutated to infect humans. Authorities demand that the public stay away from New York until the situation is contained._

Sam clicked on the remote and the TV turned off. I frowned at him, he might have been done with the news but I wasn't.

"I was watching that" I said to him.

"Yeah well I am done with the same reports over and over about these drug addicts gone wild!" he replied dryly.

"They say it is a virus not drugs"

"Who cares?"

"You should Sam, what if it leaves New York?" I said to him finding him quite unbelievable.

Sam and I were married for a whole year before things started to fall apart. I am not sure when it started. It is one of those things that creep up on you until one day you wake up and realized you are not okay. It starts with little feelings, like when he comes home from work you are not happy to see him or when he crawls to your side of the bed, you shiver in a bit of disgust and shake your head, 'not freakin' again'.

You wonder what is going on, why do you feel this way. You are confused and the sadness takes over. The little things that were bothering you become much bigger. Your nerves are raw, everything irritates you. Work seems like such a chore instead of having ownership pride. Simple things like making dinner seem unbearable. Bigger than they are and you drown under the weight of your own unhappiness.

Until you realize what is actually wrong with you. It is not your companion; it's not your house, your work or your life. No, all those things are fixable with efforts, you could feel better but no. It's more complicated than that.

It's the giant hole in your heart that someone has left behind. No matter how much you try to fill it, it stays empty and engulfs your entire being over time only for you to notice when it is already too late.

No matter what you try, nothing feels the same. You don't smile, you don't do any of the activities you used to enjoy and then one day you wake up drained having no energy to exist. You sit down staring into nothingness, tired and lonely. You stop showering, too weak to care. You are wasted to nothing, with rumbles of yourself as you hope for something, someone you cannot have. You quite simply watch yourself die longing for that whole to be filled again.

I was broken. It wasn't that I missed Eric. I needed Eric. I needed him in order to be whole again. It is not that I couldn't exist without him or breathe. It had nothing to do with being a kept woman or my own person. It had everything to do with a simple fact; when you truly love someone, you give them a part of yourself that will never be yours again. When that person is not with you, that part is gone and when you simply cannot be together, you just have to learn to live knowing you will never be whole again.

That harsh reality, I did not want to accept. Acceptance meant moving on and I simply couldn't do it. Not now, it was too soon.

I rushed to my conclusions as the world became unstable but what better excuse to change yourself and your life around?

I had not heard from Eric since our last encounter and he had left to live with Freyda. I spent countless hours trying to figure out what had happened between us and how I got myself where I was now but no matter how many times I played through my thoughts, it was always the same ending. I was miserable and I missed him.

I had chosen mind over heart and now I was paying the price. I was living with a person I did not care for anymore, and let's be honest; a part of me hated Sam for not being Eric. It was silly borderline crazy but I couldn't help it, as if it was somehow his fault.

The fact that Sam was a jerk didn't help anything. I don't know why he had become such an emotionless person but I always had my doubts that it was due to the use of the cluviel dor. Most the time I didn't dare venturing into his thoughts not because of privacy but because it was dark in there. Some of the things he thought just didn't even sound like the Sam I used to know. There was no way for me to know what costs there would be for him to come back from death but a part of me was not convinced the man sitting beside me was actually Sam.

Yet, despite having the best excuse and the best reasons, something was stopping me; the uncertainty that in the event I made it back to Eric, he may not want me anymore. That simple thought, crushed me every single time.

"It won't Sook', stop worrying about it." Sam replied and I was taken away from my thoughts.

Day Z – (minus) 10 days

"Turn that up Crazy!" a patron yelled at me as I was pouring him a drink. He was pointing at the TV where a reporter was showing an airplane behind her.

 _All flights in and out of the country are now cancelled since the incident at JFK where a mob took over a plane and killed every passenger and crew member. It is too early to tell whether it is related to the raging mob currently walking New York but it is safe to say everyone should stay home and lock their doors._

Movement behind her caught my eyes. As she spoke to the camera, several men and women were running out of the plane in their direction. It was blurry; making it hard to see exactly what was going on but while they approached the reporter at a fast pace, several patrons yelled at the TV to turn around and to get a grip. The camera was no longer steady, slowly backing up and shaking back slightly as if the one holding it was no longer paying attention. With every step they took, I kept thinking she needed to turn around, to look. Something was wrong!

 _Furthermore, aaaaah, oh my god what is that? Aaaaah_

 _They_ had reached her. She was screaming and yelling as her microphone and the camera fell to the ground. We could only see parts of legs as three men were grabbing her. There was blood gushing off the camera lens. Another man, who I guess was the cameraman, tried to intervene but was taken over by two ladies that had joined the group of attackers. The cameraman and the reporter were quickly over run and fell to the ground while _they_ bit their arms, neck and anything else _they_ could get a hold of. The reporter had lifted her skinless arm in self defense as she cried for someone to help her but _they_ continue eating her alive unphased by her plea, I couldn't watch anymore, she was dying and there was nothing we could do. The terrible sound that flesh makes when it is ripped apart turned my stomach. After a few minutes, the camera was still running but the reporter and her crew were completely silent leaving behind footage of their sinister deaths.

Something was bothering me though, once you look passed the gore, the blood and the violence. _They_ were wearing flight crew uniforms. Either her earlier reports of their deaths were false or something else was going on. The channel went dark and I looked around the bar. Everyone was staring at the TV in disbelief and no one dared say anything. I had to steady myself to ensure my shields were up; I had no desire to hear what they were thinking.

Day Z-(minus) 7 days

"I am fucking leaving and there is nothing you can do." I yelled at Sam.

"The fuck you are!" he screamed back as he grabbed my arm and twisted it.

Tears were flowing down my cheeks, I felt trapped but deep down I knew it was time to leave; it was time for me to take control of my life and find what I wanted.

I couldn't be sure Eric would want me, I couldn't be certain I could sneak around Freyda's guards enough to not get captured and killed. There was absolutely no certainty in anything I was about to do. The world was unstable, an infection quickly spreading through the United States. However, the media wasn't telling us everything, the military was invading city after city and no one was telling us what was actually going on.

Contact with New York,-ground zero was what they called it-, had been lost for at least three days now. Vampires had somehow, vanished, most staying out of the public eye. Why?

We were told to stay put, stay in our houses, in our towns but the reality was that we had so little information; most of us did not just want to wait it out. At first, people were confused, followed orders, we did not question anything, but now. Many believe it was every man for themselves. Grocery stores, drugstores and firearm stores had all been raided, people were stocking up, bracing for some kind of biological war.

But I was not doing any of it. I did not care. Call me suicidal, this past year alongside Sam was just not want I wanted. Not what I had hoped for. So here I was, awoken in the wake of a war; ready to fight for what I believed in.

I was in love with Eric, and no matter what had happened or would happen it had never been clearer that I had to be with him or die trying.

I reached down to my pocket. I had nothing to lose anymore. I was unhappy, angry, hurt and annoyed. I had a death wish, but a quest before it, and Sam was standing in the way.

I grabbed the revolver without him really noticing and as I brought it to his head, he released my arm.

"I will kill you Sam Merlotte, let me leave"

"Sookie do you realize what you are doing?"

"I don't care! The world is going to shit and I won't stand by and watch it burn as I stay with a person I hate."

"You hate me?" he said surprised, maybe a bit hurt too. "It's him isn't it?" he added angrily.

"It will always be him." I replied coldly before grabbing my bag on the floor while still pointing the revolver in his direction. "I left you the shotgun, you never know."

I grabbed my backpack and lifted it off to one shoulder. I slowly backed to the main door and when I felt it was time, I stopped pointing the revolver at Sam.

"I won't see you again." I declared and left him to his sad and hurt thoughts that I was leaving and there was nothing he could do.

Day Z – (minus) 6 days

This was the third gas station I had stopped in only to find out it was dry. I was growing weary that I might run out of gas. I mean, I didn't know much about survival but driving a car was a lot safer and faster than being on foot. I had limited supplies with me, enough water and food for maybe a couple days, so I had to make sure I had enough energy to make it to Oklahoma. I wasn't that far from the border but on foot, I was days away.

I kicked the pump and sighed heavily. Stupid ghost town, stupid virus or whatever it was! I headed inside the station to find it empty like the rest of the town.

Many folks had decided to head south to the Mexican border. As far as we could tell from the reports on TV _, they_ , the infected, were contained to the United States, the northern part of it any way so it made sense to go as south as possible. But of course being in Louisiana and going to Oklahoma meant I was going the complete opposite direction of most crowds. I had past countless groups on my way, many travelling by car or bus. It was like watching a major exodus and I was going the wrong way. Of course, that wasn't a bad thing for me. I avoided most traffic jams going in the opposite direction, because believe me, when the whole country decided to go south, it takes a long time and a lot of resources to get there. Except for Dallas, it was only a couple hours away from Shreveport but it had taken me at least 4 hours within the city to find my way out. I had therefore decided last night, to stay somewhere until the morning.

Some highways were jammed up for days. I even heard some folks chatting in the previous town saying you had to lock your doors because some people would try to steal your gas and food while waiting for the traffic to move forward.

The town I had stopped in couldn't contain more than two hundred people yet I had not seen any of them since I had arrived. As days passed and the more north I was heading, the less people I came across.

The door closed behind me making the bell sound again. The gas station was pretty typical; it had your snacks and essentials on one side and your counter on the other. The lights were off, but it was quite obvious someone had left in a hurry. I looked around the snacks section and picked up the few bags of chips, protein bars and jerky that had been left behind but it was evident someone had been here before me and had grabbed the good stuff including water. I placed everything in a large bag that I had taken from the previous town and then turned my attention to the counter.

All the cigarettes and alcohol had been raided which made me chuckled. I mean I don't smoke and drinking is far from being a priority but it was interesting to see what people considered important when they leave in a hurry. The cash register was open and emptied of course. I reached in my pocket and placed a 20 dollar bill to pay for the stuff I had just placed in my bag.

As I placed the money in the cash register and closed it, I noticed a small TV beside the lottery machine. I reached over and turned it on.

 _The population is asked to stay put; Mexico has closed its border and is pressuring the American government to help in getting them organized. There are no reasons to panic, the infection has been contained to states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina.._

The list was so long, it gave me chills every time the anchor added on a state. The lady reporter was talking directly to the camera while in the background, there was military personnel getting ready in jeeps and tanks. According to the banner at the bottom of the screen, she was reporting live from Washington, DC.

Some footage was now playing on a loop and I turned the volume higher. It was images of mobs taking over vehicles, stores, schools and heck even houses. The footage was from various major cities and the devastation it portrayed was chilling. There was so much blood, so much violence, it was hard to watch. How could you tell if someone was infected? Did you have to wait until they attacked you?

Some of the attackers looked just like me! I looked closer trying to focus despite the images passing by so fast. As much as some of them looked perfectly fine, others looked as if they were decomposing, fresh corpses walking around. Death and decomposing, like 'de los muertos' death.

It was disgusting and after watching it for a while, I had enough and turned it off. I did not want to see the carnage and the massacre that would be coming. All I wanted to know is how far away the infection was from my location and judging by this report it was a state away; Mississippi.

I decided it would be wise to go to the washroom before I took to the road again; I wanted to get to the main part of the village quickly since the gas station was located at the entrance of the town. As I approach the door, I heard a noise coming from within. Was someone here? I knocked gently but no answer came. I tried the nob and found that it wasn't locked. It opened with a long creaking noise that seemed so out of place, the silence surrounding me was deafening.

"Hello?"

No answer.

It was dark in the bathroom having no windows around to illuminate it. I searched for the light switched and when I reached it I flicked it on.

I heard a cat hiss and before I could move, it jumped on me and dug its claws into my arm. I screamed at the top of my lungs as it tore into my flesh, I was surprised and shocked at the same time.

"What the fuck!" is all I said before grabbing it by its neck skin and throwing it as far as I could.

It scattered out meowing its disapproval. Stupid animals! It had clawed my arm pretty badly and the blood made it hard to see how deep the wound was. Judging by the burning sensation and the amount of it though, I would say it was pretty deep.

I searched the convenience part of the gas station in search of rubbing alcohol or anything that I could use to disinfect it as well as band aids. I wasn't lucky in the disinfectant quest but found an emergency first aid kit behind the cash register. I took it with me and headed to my car where I felt safer away from the stupid animal.

I sat behind the wheel and held my arm with my other one. I could use some of my water to clean the wound but what was more important? I had chances to find alcohol in town and since my supply of water was limited, I decided to simply bandage up my wounds and started to drive.

It was one of those towns with only two main streets that met right in the middle. I bet one was called main but I didn't look to confirm my suspicions. I reached the one and only intersection. On one corner there was a restaurant, on the other, a general store. Both had their doors wide open and windows broken.

There was no one left in this town, I was the only living soul but what was the most unsettling wasn't the paper scattered everywhere or the broken down cars around the street. It wasn't for the obvious looting on the main buildings or heck the lack of human beings being around. The most disturbing thing was the silence. It wasn't the absence of actual sounds, there was plenty of creaking and cracking, it was the absence of life, its noises and sounds.

It was all gone.

I parked my car on the side of the street mainly out of habit and peeked through the restaurant's broken windows. As I expected, it was empty and completed trashed. I quickly walked through it searching for anything I could take with me but did not find anything, not even in the kitchen.

I headed to the general store, hoping to have better luck. The television had been left on and all I could see was colored bars on the screen and a humming beep sound coming from it. The channel it was on, was no longer working. I flipped through many channels with the exact same screen, sometimes snow sometimes black until I got the news channel that had a message displaying in red.

 _Please standby._

Okay? I sighed as I continued my search. Most of the shelves had been either kicked or pushed to the ground with the exception of one, where several porcelain dolls were on display. Some of them read Welcome to Sanger and I assumed it was the name of the town I was in. I could not be that far off from Oklahoma since the boarder was only an hour away from Dallas. You see, Louisiana is southeast of Oklahoma but it doesn't touch its borders, you have to either go to Arkansas or Texas and I chose the latter because I know highway 20 is a lot better than anything in Arkansas and it's also a lot faster, well when there is no traffic and you have enough gas that is.

I looked at the clock and realized it was going to be dark soon. I could hurry and find gas to take the road over night or I could find shelter and wait for the morning. I did not mind driving at night so I hurried up and grabbed the two plastic pipes that were on the ground, they were probably from the general store's hardware section. I also noticed a small bottle of vodka and some bandages. Taking a few minutes to disinfect my wound, I then bandaged it up and continued to look around the store. I finally found the last piece I needed; an empty gas can and headed outside where some cars were parked on the side of the road.

Sure siphoning gas from cars was illegal and considered theft, but no one was here to mind and I was in dire need of it. I tried a few modern cars only to find when they are locked, so is the gas panel access. One of the car alarm systems started blaring and I almost had a heart attack. Shit. I looked around as if I had just been caught red handed only to be reminded that there was no one in this town to give a shit.

I headed to an older pickup truck hoping I wouldn't have the same problem. I did not, and the panel opened up. I pushed the longest pipe into the tank and placed the other end into my container. I then pushed the other pipe in and began blowing air into the tank until the pressure was too high and the gas started flowing into my container. I know there are other ways to do this but I had two pipes at my disposal and this was the easiest way without swallowing gas. When it stopped flowing, I grabbed the container and headed to my car as I was eager to take to the road again.

As I poured the gas, I looked up the side of the general store and noticed there were apartments above it. It would be a good idea to head upstairs and scavenge before I took to the road. The sun was already going down and I was pretty sure I did not have a full tank of gas which meant I would not make it to Oklahoma yet. I also needed blankets to spend the night in the car wherever I would choose to stop again, so I climbed the stairs that lead up to the apartment doors and started scavenging apartment after apartment; grabbing food, water and blankets. There was not much left and most apartments appeared to have been trashed already.

I looked through the window of one of the apartments and noticed that the car alarm had stopped. Maybe the battery had died? As I gathered my supplies, something caught my eye in the living room of the third apartment. It was a shoe lying right at the corner of the couch. I approached it with caution only to find out that it was attached to a foot, a body lying in the middle of the floor. The person had her eyes opened and it was evident she was dead. Half her face was missing; her jaw had been ripped from it. Her tongue lay on the floor as she stared at nothing. I brought my arm to my mouth thinking I was going to vomit. The smell was horrendous and as I stared at the corpse I kept telling myself to get a grip and move on. I mean a part of me was sad to see another human being like this. What was her story? What had happened? While the other part of me was worried about my own security. I thought I was alone, what if I wasn't?

I looked around the fireplace and grabbed one of the pictures that were on display. The woman was holding a man tightly smiling at the camera. It must have been her boyfriend or maybe a husband. A scratching noise took me away from the picture. It was coming from the other room. It sounded like an animal was at the door or something. After arming myself with a kitchen knife, I headed to the door where it was coming from. The closer I got from it the smellier it got. It was as if the stench from the woman had been amplified 10 folds. The door had been blocked by a chair to keep something in the room. I backed off immediately. I did not want to know what or who had been trapped there but then I heard a moan and I was faced with a terrible decision. Should I leave and not look back, not knowing whether someone needed my help in there? Or should I open the door and disregard my own instincts that chair had been there for a reason? I instinctively dropped my shields in hopes of scanning the other room. There was nothing. No thoughts, no signature.

After having an internal debate between the two options I opted for opening the door. It wasn't safe, but I didn't think I could live with myself if I didn't, at least to check whether someone was in fact in there and whether I could help. There were no thoughts for sure but it was possible they were unconscious?

I removed the chair slowly and placed my ear onto the door. The moaning had stopped and instead I could hear someone getting up.

"Hello? Are you okay in there?" I said but instantly regretted my words when the door started to shake under the constant pounding.

I took a few steps back as the door quickly gave in to whoever was smashing it. The man came out of it running, he took just a few seconds to look around once out and to see where I was before lunging at me. I didn't have time to assess the situation; I turned around and headed to the door as fast as I could. He followed me running as well based on the footsteps I heard behind me. I did not dare to turn around. There was no need. I climbed down the steps, probably skipping a couple while I ran to my car. It was now dark outside but I knew the way to my car despite the lack of a streetlight. This town must have done what most towns did to conserve energy, shut down any unnecessary lighting.

As I ran to my car, it just seemed further and further away. I was not looking where I was going and missed the giant pot hole on the ground, when my foot fell into it, I did hear the inevitable crack my foot made as I broke it. I yelped in pain and fell to the ground. Shit!

When I heard the apartment door open, I ducked behind a parked car and slipped under it. There was not enough time to get to my car, not with a busted foot so all I could do now was hide. Because of the obscurity, I figured I had a chance to not be found. The man had stopped running probably because he did not know where I was. He took a few steps in front of him, each one with a loud clicking noise as if his bones were touching. I was pretty far back and maybe a yard away from my car. I held my breath as the man took a couple steps in my direction.

I silently prayed to the lord to spare my life, his steps were getting closer. I placed my hand in front of my mouth to ensure no noises were coming out and as I shook completely frozen in fear, I heard another set of footstep coming from another building. Was there more than one man?

The truth crawled into my brain and I shivered in desperation, the first man was locked in the room when I found the girl which meant, he could have not possibly killed her. The second man was slowly walking in my direction but something was off in his steps. When he stood beside the car I realized he was missing a foot and was stepping on his stump as if he could not feel the pain. They did not talk, just moaned and grumbled.

I held my breath as long as I could until they finally walked away to a different part of the street. I could try to sneak to my car but I couldn't be sure how far they were so I decided to stay here for as long as I needed to, to make sure they were no longer there even if it meant to wait until the morning.

Were they infected? It was impossible; the reporter had not mentioned this state.

Day Z – (minus) 2 days

I had run out of gas about 20 miles from the border. I guess it was lucky for me that my broken foot was the left and not the right one but without gas, I was very slow. I had used the back roads as much as I could since the more I approached Oklahoma the more evident the truth was. The infected were everywhere; the media were the ones pushing people to go south. I don't know why the media was not telling the truth, whether it was the fact that they simply did not know or they had been told to give a false report but the reality is that it was costing people their lives and now I knew more than them, it made me question everything I was hearing on my small radio.

I had picked it up in Sanger, it was tiny but the battery was solar powered which made it invaluable. Around noon, I turned it on to hear the latest news. I couldn't trust it but I had to hear it. The thing was, I no longer visited cities or even town. The reporter had been wrong, the plague was here, lurking, waiting. The few towns I had visited after Sanger were all infected finding more and more bodies and ghost towns left behind by people too in a hurry to grab the necessities of survival.

The situation reported was never better. Most news reports were now saying that it was some kind of bacteria that was infecting people and anti-biotics were ineffective. The death count was higher and higher every day and all I could hear was the many politicians,-probably in a protective bunker now-, telling us to not worry. Not worry? What the fuck?

Vampires were nowhere to be found and the bacterium was reported to affect most supernatural beings. I couldn't help but wonder where the vampires went? Why were they hiding while this bacterium was taking over? Were they hiding like they did during the plagues that graced Europe all those years ago.

Was Eric one of them? Would I be able to find him? I knew I had to try but the desperation at times made me doubt myself.

Sometimes the news report was cut short with a large beep sound taking over. At first I thought maybe it was because I was losing signal or something but now I was starting to think the problem was on their end as I never heard from the same reporters again.

I was nowhere near a town and had to resort to walking. Now if it wasn't for my busted leg, it wouldn't be that big of a deal, just a hike or something, but I was slow, vulnerable and scared. I had grabbed a huge backpack in my scavenging efforts so I packed it as much as I could before beginning my journey on foot. It was heavy but my survival depended on it.

I couldn't be certain about my exact location but I knew I was heading in the right direction and that eventually I would hit Oklahoma and then Oklahoma City.

I looked up at the sky to see where the sun was. I knew it was late in the day so I would have to find shelter for the night. Walking in the woods with no flashlight and a broken foot is just not an option. I found a bush against a big rock and decided that was where I was going to hide for the night. After putting my stuff on the side, I sat down with a bottle of water and drank a bit from it. I was so tired, it was at the times where I sat that I felt it the most. My muscles were aching, my foot throbbing with pain while I was constantly out of breathe.

I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep. The thing was, it wasn't a real sleep it was one of those sleeps where you have one ear that is always listening. Just like dogs, one small tiny noise would cause my eyes to fly open and for me to be on alert. But it was the only sleep I could afford myself alone in the woods and when I reopened my eyes slightly, I noticed it was now dark out.

I am not sure why I opened my eyes, but they were now open and I was listening. The dead silence was creepier than the normal bird and animals sounds you hear in the forest. I had not spent a whole lot of time in the woods but when it was dead silent, it was never a good sign.

I did not move, confident I would have more luck in the shadows, hidden, then moving and looking for something. Sure enough, after a few minutes, I heard leaves under someone's foot and when I scanned the area, I could hear thoughts…The absence of groaning and moaning were reassuring in a way, I was pretty sure whomever was here with me was not infected. Then I heard a crack, from a completely different direction and the panic settle back in. I wasn't alone with someone else, we were at least three. I had not seen a human being in days; I wasn't even sure how to socialize anymore. And what if they were not friendly? I mean I was a woman, I am not stupid. I was vulnerable to their pity and their kindness which I wasn't convinced still existed in today's world. It felt more like every man for themselves. Their thoughts were focused on where they were setting down their feet and where the noise they had heard earlier came from. I guess they were on to me.

What do they want? Maybe it was just a coincidence and they did not even know I was here? Was that wishful thinking?

Yes.

One of them was beside me and I could tell he was looking right in my bush. He was thinking that I was sleeping and he could use that to his advantage to take me by surprise. I had no reason to think they were not hostiles; they were sneaking around me and not identifying themselves. If I was approaching someone I did not know and was friendly, would you not say hi? Establish human freaking grounds rules?

He reached into the bush with a knife in his hand but I was quicker and I had grabbed a rock which I smashed onto his forearm causing him to drop the knife.

"Fuck!" he yelled. "She is hostile, Frank! Shoot her!"

I heard the cocking of a gun and I froze. I am hostile? What? He shot in my direction but I heard it ricochet onto the rock behind me. I shrieked in shock.

"Stop!" I yelled and I did not hear the gun again.

"You are not dead?" one of them said.

"No you missed" I replied.

"No I mean you are not infected?"

"No I am not; I am broken but not infected." I quickly answered while one of them turned a flashlight on.

After shining it on me from top to bottom, he brought it again to my bandaged arm.

"Were you bitten?"

"No a cat scratched me" I replied frowning. Why the fuck does it matter?

He brought the flashlight back to his face and extended his bloody arm and hand.

"I am Johnny and this is Frank. Sorry about that we didn't know."

"You could have just asked!" I exclaimed while Johnny helped me to my feet.

"Yeah so you know where we were and jumped on us to eat us the first chance you got."

Well I guess they did not know I could hear their thoughts but I wasn't about to tell them that.

"I guess it's hard to tell the difference between infected and normal." I said sarcastically.

"You mean between the living, the dead and the undead?" Frank asked and I frowned.

"I don't understand what you mean"

"Those things are not just infected ma'am, they are dead."

Day Z – Day of the Dead

"Why would you leave Bon Temps? Sounds like it was a great little place you could have hid." Johnny asked me as he wrapped my foot as tight as he could.

Since the night I had met him and his brother, my chances of finding Eric had increased tremendously. They were part of some convoy with four other people and had made it their mission to find other humans and to just survive until the government and the military took care of the problem.

The group had a school bus they had converted into a temporary mobile home. They had lots of supplies and everything I needed for my broken foot. Johnny was a doctor, he told me without an x-ray, he would not know how to treat my broken bone but he mobilized it and every 12 hours he changed the bandages. He was afraid of bacteria and infection, and who could blame him?

"There was nothing for me left in Bon Temps." I replied watching him as he took care of my foot.

"So where are you heading then? Because the only thing you tell us is north, when all the media says it is the worst way to go. I have no problem to head up North for you. I mean we don't really have a direction we were heading and while we wait for the government to get their shit together we need something to do, but I do hope you tell me why you want to go north?" he explained as he put back on my shoe.

I had no reason to lie to him, but a part of me knew how silly it was to give up everything just for a slight possibility of seeing someone again. Did I want to look silly to them…borderline suicidal? Truth be told, I couldn't care less.

"Because that is where I will find Eric." I said simply knowing more questions were coming.

He didn't ask me to continue but he looked up and stared at me clearly waiting for the rest of the story.

"He is my husband."

It was a lie, I mean Eric and I were divorced but I did not want to get in to the details of our love story and our failed attempt to be together. I did not wish to hash out what I did wrong and why he was in Oklahoma. And let's not forget I certainly did not want to share the part where he was a vampire. Most humans disliked them during times such as these. Where were they? We could use their help. They were stronger and faster than any of us.

"Was he travelling for work or something?"

"No, it is a long story but we were separated for a while."

"I see" he said before thinking "other woman".

"It is not what you think" I replied defensively.

"Does it matter what I think? I will get us to go to Oklahoma City, it's not far from here and it gives us a purpose but just know that you might not find what you are looking for there." He said sadly and I did not respond. Somehow I knew there was more to the story but now was not the time to talk about it.

"GUYS! Come on", Vanessa screamed from the bus and we both looked in her direction. She was in charge of listening to radio chatter, Medias and governmental announcements.

"It's the president! He is dead! Everyone is dead. There are no governments." She yelled and we both ran to the bus.

There were scattered images of the white house on fire, the dead president, and the military shooting at each other. It seemed as if the dead's were everywhere, taking down cities and life as we know it. As I watched these images, I felt completely and utterly numb unable to connect with it. It looked surreal as if I was watching a movie not reality. Very few reporters were still doing their jobs but the more they talked the more evident it became they were more busy with surviving than actual reporting. The cameras were a secondary thought; something that just happens to be there, their minds just let it roll.

We were no longer told to stay put. Most channels were silent and instead had the same images playing on a loop. It seemed as if we humans had no longer a purpose, it was a free for all. I looked around our little group. Their faces said it all. Sadness, disbelief and horror was all we could feel as we all came to the realization that our government had fallen and that the help we thought would eventually come and fix this shit, was never going to come.

One by one the channels stopped working and went dark. Within 30 minutes of the first presidential death coverage, the images disappeared leaving only a loud beeping noise and some colourful rectangles behind. There were no longer any chatter, any images, nothing. Not even the radio could pick up anything.

I was terrified and deep down I was freaking out. What were we going to do? There was no help, no light at the end of the tunnel. The devastation I felt, I knew I shared with all of them. What are we without hope?

And when we thought it couldn't get worst, well it did.

The power went out and somehow we knew it wasn't coming back.

October 31, 2015. Day Z, the day the dead walked the United States, and the country ceased to exist.

Day Z + 2 days present

I don't think any of us cared what day it was anymore. Ever since losing contact with the rest of the world, they had lost their purpose, their reward. They all thought eventually the government would take control of the situation, the dead would be put to rest and civilization would be restored.

But how can you do that when you do not know when someone will turn on you, become one of them instead of one of us? We had seen the army turning on each other; we had seen the white house burn and the dead president. How do you defeat something you cannot possibly understand? It's too early; heck 2 weeks ago we thought it was a virus! How can you save a nation when you cannot even save yourself? The government had been overrun by these creatures; the president of the United States was freaking dead! Maybe he was even walking amongst them.

The group was crushed, tired and depressed. Their thoughts involved only on what to do now, and whether living was even worth it.

But not me.

I still had a purpose, the same purpose I had days ago. I still had the same energy and the same determination. A part of me knew Eric was once again saving me but this time it wasn't in the literal sense of it. He was saving me from depression, from having no purpose and I was extremely thankful.

I had passed down this purpose to the rest of the group, some of them did not care what we did, while others were opposed to it but were outnumbered. Johnny was their leader and he too believed the group needed a purpose. Mine was easy, close to our reach already, it made sense he made it theirs.

We had made it to Oklahoma City within the day. We had been only hours away from it and, contrary to me, they had gas and a bus so I did not need to walk.

Once we had arrived, they had turned to me and asked me where to next but the truth was that I had no idea. I did not know where she lived but I couldn't tell them that. What was I to do anyway? It was possible I had never anticipated to actually make it here and had never taken the time to think about what I would do once I did get here to the city.

"All I know is that they live in the northern part." I said and Johnny nodded.

It wasn't true, I had no idea but we were on the south end so we would have to go through it to get to the downtown part and then the north. That was 3 sectors we would cover and hopefully I would get a sign or something. I don't know what I was hoping for but no one had seen vampires since the infection started. Absolutely no one.

"You guys don't have to come with me you know. You have already helped so much; I can take it from here. I don't want you guys to put your life in danger."

We did not know how many infected there were out there. We were all under the impression that it would only get worst.

"You cannot even walk Sookie." Johnny replied and of course he had a good point. I did not know what he was thinking but I was trying my best to keep my shields up. I did not like snooping in their minds especially Johnny's. I had a hard time understanding him and some of his thoughts were so personal.

I agreed with him that I was pretty useless at the moment in terms of searching but at the same time, I guess I just did not want to deal with the guilt if anyone was to get hurt while we were on our quest. Especially since they did not know all the details, like Eric being a vampire; I felt like I was cheating them from valuable information.

"What is your husband's name anyway?" he said as he signaled to Cara, the bus driver, to head downtown.

"Eric", I said and I took a deep breath. I was relieved that they would help me find him but of course I wasn't stupid. I knew my chances were slim.

Johnny walked over through the middle aisle and took a seat beside me. I watched him and offered a smile when he looked at me. I don't know if it was because of old habits but I always seemed to want to comfort people even if a smile was not good enough for such a difficult job.

I got a glimpse of a thought, about me, and I looked away. I was so tired; my shields were failing me at times. He was comparing me to his wife.

"What did you mean the other day when you said I might not find what I am looking for? Eric is not with another woman by choice you know." I said to him in an effort to shift his thoughts.

It was the truth and even though I couldn't be sure that he would want anything to do with me, one thing I knew was that he surely did not want to be there either.

"You think I meant he might want to stay with the other woman?" he said amused but then quickly lost his smile as if he remembered something. "That is not what I meant." I saw images of her smiling at him. He was so sad, it was evident something had happened to her.

I stayed silent waiting for him to continue but he did not. Instead he got up again and went in the front to speak with Cara. I closed my eyes and focused on my shields again.

I did not go after him. I respected he did not wish to speak about her. I turned to the window where countless empty streets flashed before my eyes at every corner. It was so strange to see them void of any life. It had stopped, everything was frozen in time.

"He was referring to his wife", I heard Frank say to me from the back of the bus.

I turned my head in his direction intrigued but also scared to hear what he had to say.

"We came from New York City." He said to me plainly but it explained everything. How was it possible? How did they escape the quarantine, the infected, and the government! "We have seen a lot more than any of you." He whispered to me when he took the seat on the exact spot Johnny had been minutes earlier. I guess he did not want the others to know what we were talking about.

"We escaped. She was on a business trip in Illinois. So we went there to get her. We had time on our side; we knew the army was containing the outbreak to New York. Well we were wrong. When we got there, she was really sick. In her bed. She told us she had been bit. Within 4 hours, she died and there was nothing we could do."

"I am so sorry" I replied to him.

"I am too. The thing is, she didn't really die, and she was infected. Her heart was no longer beating, her eyes were vacant but she was walking, running and she tried to kill us. I had to cut her head off." He said with such coldness. It is not that Frank was a sociopath but when you live a trauma, sometimes the only way to accept it is to detach yourself emotionally from it. I did not want to think about what cutting someone's head off entailed.

"Eric is alive, I am sure of it." I said as a sole response, my only hope. Sure it sounded as if I was trying to convince myself of the fact but what else could I do. I couldn't imagine a world without him, no matter how broken it already was.

Day Z + 3 days, present day

"What the fuck is that?" I said hearing the howling, the screams, and the moans coming from what it seems was far away.

"They are here." Johnny replied as he stared into my eyes. "Sookie, we need to leave the city before it is too late. Eric isn't here. We would have seen him, heard him."

"I am not leaving without him."

"Why can't you see that he has clearly left!" he said angrily his mind begging me to just follow him.

"Leave if you want, get yourselves to safety but I am staying." I said as I slammed the door to the house we had been staying in since the night before.

We had gone through the empty downtown and the north side of Oklahoma City. We had called his name, searched for any signs of life but all in vain. When the sun had started coming down, we had found refuge in a house where we had parked the bus in the drive way. Most of them could not leave their new home; the bus. They spent the night there while Johnny, Frank and Cara stayed in the house with me. We were looking for some kind of comfort, a reminder of home.

"Sookie, there will be thousands of them. They travel together. I don't know how or why, but you need to fucking get out of here." He said through the door which he kicked in without much trouble when he saw I was no longer responding.

"I will take my chances." I said stubbornly taking a few step back.

"Fine." He said and without much thought he grabbed me and threw me over his shoulder.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Let me go."

"No", is all he said but his mind was promising he would save me no matter how I felt about it. He couldn't bare the idea that I would stay behind and I felt terrible. A part of me knew Johnny cared for me in a different way than he did for the others but I was always in denial. I loved Eric, no one else. He knew that so why? I chased the thoughts away and tried to break free but he was really strong and I had no energy. My foot was still broken, I had not eaten since the night before and I was lacking in minerals and everything else I used to watch because I cared about my health.

He brought me to the bus as the mumbling and the groaning was increasing in volume. I guess that is what happened when you do not have any other noise or anything in the way. Sound travels, amplifies and we are left terrified of what it is bringing with it.

"What the hell is going on?", Cara asked and I gave her one of those murderous looks.

"Sookie is suicidal and wants to stay here."

I was done talking, what else could I say to convince them to leave me behind? The truth? That Eric was a vampire and probably had disappeared with the lot of them? It would just aggravate them, giving them ammunition to their suicidal theory.

He sat me down at the back of the bus as it started moving towards downtown. I heard them have a conversation about heading south, about migrations and how these things were now on to us but I didn't care, he wasn't here and I was lost.

I considered a life without him when I had said yes to Sam but where it had lead me was just not where I wanted to be. Yet, here I was, at the back of a bus, in the middle of an empty city; without him. And while I wondered if it was even worth my energy, my fight, these people were driving me to safety because they cared about me when the only reason why they were not safe was because of me.

The irony.

I am not sure how long they drove before we were in the middle of a downtown's empty street. No one was talking anymore, we were all listening. I couldn't say to what exactly but the screaming and the moaning seemed to be louder than before as if instead of going away from them we were going to it.

"I don't like this" Cara whispered as she slowed the bus down.

It was night time, we could barely see, she had turned the lights off the bus as to not attract unwanted attention so the only light we could rely on was the day headlights. I had this sinking gut feeling that told me something was wrong. Actually, everything felt wrong. I looked through the window and as we slowly passed a street, I saw glimmers of shadows nearby.

"Shit" I heard Cara say a bit louder. The bus had stopped.

"Go!" I heard Frank yelled at her but although she was pressing the gas, we barely moved.

"There are too many of them Frank!" she screamed and I hopped to the front of the bus.

There were no longer any daylights; they were obstructed by the dead bodies of hundreds of infected screaming at us. Their faces were distorted with rage and violence I had rarely seen. Some were now on the roof quickly taking over the bus. The banging on the door and the windows was loud, just not enough to muffle their voices.

The quick footsteps on the roof told me there were at least 5 or 6 of them up there. Everyone had retreated to the back of the bus, staring at the door as our only hope in surviving this. But of course, as soon as we directed the flashlight in that direction, we saw the bloody faces of more infected who immediately started pounding on the emergency exit door.

"What are we going to do? They are everywhere." Cara yelled as she shook uncontrollably.

I don't know what we could do. There was too many of them. Where could we hide? Or could we run away. Both options seemed futile.

Johnny had been silent, probably calculating our best options. As I silently continued to freak out, he headed to the driver seat.

"Frank and Sookie take the shot guns and get ready. We will kick the windshield off, you will shoot them and I will drive to the building on the right until we are close enough that we can slip through and have a chance in escaping." He said calmly which took me by surprise.

We all blinked at each other but a plan was what we needed and after the initial shock, we all nodded our heads and got ready. That is all we needed a plan and as suicidal as it sounded, it was our only hope.

I grabbed a shotgun and stood between Frank and Johnny. When everyone was at their post, Johnny gave the okay and Frank kicked the windshield off. It took several minutes, it wasn't an easy job, and with my broken foot I could barely help. When the windshield finally gave in, we proceeded in shooting the infected closest to the bus. Johnny was pressing the gas as much as he could and the bus slowly got moving, crushing the bodies under its weight.

Frank and I had to venture outside the bus to continue our shooting. I was lying down on my stomach through the windshield when I felt a body fall beside me. Frank yelled "watch out" so I closed my eyes and protected my face. He shot the infected who then tripped on my body and fell off the bus.

Johnny was yelling to hold on and within a minute or two we were crashing into the front window of a small store.

"Let's go," he said, "hurry."

Frank was the first one to exit. He entered the room and immediately proceeded in blocking some of the space between the bus and the outside so no infected could come in. He used furniture and anything he could find in the small store. We all knew it would not hold forever but it was enough for now.

Everyone exited the bus as Johnny reached for me so I could get back out through the windshield again and exit through the buses door. I am sure my foot was hurting a lot but I couldn't feel it at all. Now was not the time.

"Fucking hurry!" Frank yelled as I heard a large crash.

Johnny yanked on my arm which propelled me outside the bus into his arms. The infected were coming in from the other side of the bus and soon would be between us and the rest of the group whom had already moved into the staircase that was heading to the upstairs of the building.

I wanted to yell at him to let me go, I was just slowing him down but there was no time. He grabbed my arm and strongly pulled me towards the doorframe but I felt another hand clawing me in the leg while another one grabbed my free arm. I knew the infected were here and as one took a giant bite out of my forearm, I let go of Johnny and used that arm to punch it in the face. I shoved it back resulting in it yelling at me as I saw the chunk of my flesh hanging in its mouth.

I guess Johnny had grabbed the shotgun or something, but he shot that thing right in the face, and then grabbed me again before more could reach me. As soon as we were passed the doorframe, Frank closed the door behind us and pulled a giant desk with the others help to block the door.

We immediately proceeded in climbing the stairs as high as we could. Eight flights later, I had taken off my shirt and wrapped my arm with it. It was bleeding profusely; I could tell the energy was slowly leaving my body. We reached the roof in no time. The thing was the door was design to keep people from going outside from the inside. Once we were out, how were we to block it?

The group quickly produced different objects until Cara came back with a large crate she could barely move herself. I stumbled away, trying to get my head focused and cleared. My shirt was soaked, barely stopping the bleeding. I sat down and tried to close my eyes so the roof would stop spinning.

Eventually the pounding started on the door, but nobody cared. They were all standing around me with that look of pity on their face.

"What?" I said but no one answered.

Johnny crouched beside me and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"We need to act quickly before the infection spreads.

"What? I don't understand." I said to him as I watch him look at the floor.

"I am sorry Sookie." He said and signaled to Frank to come closer. He grabbed my arm and I frowned.

"What are you doing?" I demanded as he unwrapped my shirt bandage and took a look at the bite. It wasn't a pretty sight at all. There was so much blood pooling. But I saw it, I saw the black around the skin's edge. What the fuck?

"If we do not remove it, it will spread and kill you", Johnny said as tears rolled down his cheek.

"No, no, no. You can't do that. I will heal." I said to him reaching with my good arm to his face.

"Johnny, listen to me. We can watch it, make sure it heals." I said to him but Frank grabbed my waste as he kneeled behind me. He was holding me in place with one arm. He was so strong, or maybe I was the one weak?

"NO", I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Johnny had raised his machete above his head while Frank was holding my arm out with his free hand. I kept on yelling to stop, that I was not infected, that it was not their choice to make. Johnny had closed his eyes; repeating to himself mentally to do it. I knew he was trying to find the courage he needed to chop my forearm off.

"Please," I begged, "You don't know what one bite will do. I am sure I can fight it, just watch me, you will see! " I exclaimed still crying from the stress and the fear that I was about to lose my arm and then I would have to face the 50/ 50 chance odds that I will either live to tell my story or get an infection and die anyways. "Give me a fucking chance!" I yelled in desperation.

"Sookie! No one is immune! You don't understand. You don't know what happens when you get bit. The bacteria, it will eat you up until you die and you open your eyes again", Frank said while holding me a bit tighter. "This _is_ giving you a chance!" he added putting an emphasis on the word "is".

Johnny took a deep breath; I closed my eyes and I screamed with everything I had in me as the blade descended upon my arm.

I thought I would feel an insane amount of pain, but there was nothing. No bang, no blood, no pain. I was in shock, I couldn't hear well either. I risked an eye in Johnny's direction. He wasn't there anymore. Heck Frank wasn't holding me anymore. I turned around quickly; he was backing up to the edge of the building. I looked in Johnny's direction. He was no longer on his feet. Instead, someone was holding him up in the air, strangling the life out of him.

I gasped in horror, unable to process what I was seeing. My vision was blurry, my heart was pounding. I felt sick. I held my bloody arm to myself as I tried to get up on my feet but instead just stumbled awkwardly to Johnny who was extending his hand to me.

I reached for it but lost my footing and ending up catching myself on the man who was holding him. I held onto him tightly, desperate for him to stop. Was he an infected? Maybe he would turn on me. I mean I was kinda dead anyways…

Johnny was fading, I could tell because his hand was no longer extended to me and his thoughts were desperate. He was making horrible gurgling sounds as he was choking. No one was helping him and here I was clutching his aggressor, pleading to let him go. I might have said so, I couldn't tell, but I used all the force I had left to pound on the man's chest. I was slipping, no longer having any energy to hold on.

The man swiftly threw Johnny towards the others before he grabbed me. I was finished, dead and somehow, I was not afraid. Living in a world without Eric was living in no world at all. I could not stand watching myself fade anymore and become only a shell of myself. I was ready to embrace death, to wait for the other side to end my suffering. There was nothing left for me here.

It took me a few seconds to realize he was holding me tightly against his chest. He wasn't hurting me, he was hugging me. How could this be? His smell, his tenure, how could it be him? I had accepted I would never see him again that I would never hold him against me and tell him how much I loved him. I had accepted I was going to be empty forever, I had accepted death!

I gasped for air, trying to push him away just enough so I could see his face. Is it him, is it really him? I am pretty sure my heart skipped a beat when I heard him call my name.

"Lover."

 _ **We will always find each other.**_


	2. Chapter 2point1

**Rated M for mature content. This has not been reviewed by a beta reader.**

 **Part 2** **.1**

 **Eric Northman**

Present Day

"Sookie! No one is immune! You don't understand. You don't know what happens when you get bit. The bacteria, it will eat you up until you die and you open your eyes again," a human male yelled as his large arm held Sookie in place. I couldn't help myself but growl. MY Sookie, terrified, at their mercy. I took a step forward and then another, until I was running in her direction. Vampire speed had its advantages; I reached the second human male just in time before the machete came down upon her arm. The fuckers were in the process of cutting out her arm and judging by the intoxicating smell in the air, she was bleeding. The idiots thought removing the infected limb would prevent the infection.

If only they knew.

I grabbed _Machete_ by the throat, rage rippling through my body. I wanted to take him apart, rip off his fucking arm, to see how he would like it. Heck, I wanted to take that arm and beat him senseless with it, slap after slap until there would be so much blood, his own mother wouldn't recognize him.

The _Machete_ was clearly exhibiting signs of choking; it probably had something to do with my hand squeezing his throat. I wasn't even using my most dominant hand to kill this fucker. The chocking male had brought one hand to mine as if it would do anything in convincing me to drop him while the other had extended to my lover. How could he possibly be this arrogant? I squeezed harder.

Sookie was on the ground staring at us. I don't think she could see me from where she was, it was too dark for her human eyes. The loud banging on the doors from the infected humans were distracting and only added to the stress that was palpable in the air. Each loud bang made her jumped a bit, but the noise wasn't enough for me to lose track of my surroundings or sight of the other humans. They had all taken a step back clearly afraid of who I was or what I was. At least, they knew their place. I heard a gasped from Sookie and as she tried to get up, she was so weak, she stumbled to us instead. I saw her reached for this male but lost her footing and caught herself on my torso.

Her touch instantly gave me a breath as if my body seemed to be waking up from a nightmare. The human male was choking and making gurgling sound that was just music to my ear. I looked at him and hoped he would die already, so I could finally hold my lover in my arms.

But then, she cried and I frowned. She was pleading for this human's life and it occurred to me she had not recognized me yet. She was now pounding on my chest and with every hit, my heart ache. I could feel the hate of the energy she was pouring in each of her strikes until it quickly went away and I felt her fade away. She had wasted almost all her energy just to save him?

I swiftly threw the human male back to the group she was with as he no longer matter. I grabbed her unable to imagine my life without her. Living in a world without Sookie was living in no world at all. I couldn't stand being away from her any longer and the mere thought of her dying right here, right now, was enough to send me to my knees. I held her tightly against my chest unable to control myself. I mentally pleaded for her to hang on, she couldn't leave me now.

Her body was stiff, awkwardly accepting my embrace but not returning it. I held on to her harder, pouring all the love I could so she could feel me. I didn't know if it was working but she eventually relaxed in my arms and gasped for air trying to push me away but in such a way, it felt friendly, as if she had finally recognized me and just wanted to see my face.

As soon as our eyes met, her heart literally skipped a beat.

"Lover," I exclaimed at last.

-zzzz-

Day Z – (minus) 14 days

I was so very bored. Don't get me wrong, living in a castle with slaves, I mean butlers, maids and any entertainment I could wish for, all in one place, had its benefits but it wasn't for me. I had managed to spend most of my 1000 of years on this earth either battling or partying but for the most part I had stayed away from the rich aristocratic life that monarchy could bring.

Of course, this was only temporary, a debt I had to pay in order to keep my lover safe for the remainder of her life. The thought of never seeing her again was agony but I had remained strong, unwilling to share with Freyda, the pain it caused me. As if someone had pierced a hole through my undead heart, it felt something was missing and I knew it was her.

In a time, where I thought I would never feel alive again, where I had given up on living and simply spent my death in waiting, she had entered my life and had changed it forever. Sookie had taught me that I could love someone, that despite how long I had spent to forget my human life that pieces of it had remained, pieces of me; the real me. I supposed I should be thankful that I had the privilege of meeting her and spending time with her. A part of my being felt incredibly thankful for it for I would have had rather spend a few months with her than an eternity without her.

But having said that, it didn't take away the pain I felt every time something reminded me of her. Sometimes it felt as if the pain lessen overtime, but it always brought longing with a revenge until longing was too much and brought pain again. They say time heals everything but in my case, time did not necessarily equal death, the only true cure to a broken heart. I had accepted the inevitable truth that Sookie would forever hold my heart and that I would walk this earth with only her memories to cherish until I was to meet my true death. Of course, this was a choice, at any time I could just kill Freyda with a giant fuck you to the monarchy and fly over to my lover and reclaim her.

But it wasn't what she wanted. Sookie had made it clear that she would never be happy with me and that she had chosen another. No matter how much agony it brought me, I loved her enough to let her go and some could find this was the irony of it all.

I entered the entertainment room where I found my child. Pam had stayed behind in Shreveport in order to take care of my affairs, but sometimes, she came to visit and I could safely say, it was the only thing that brought a smile on my face these days.

"Good evening," I said to her taking a few more strides before reaching her. My head bend down just enough that she could kiss me on the cheek. "I am pleased to see you Pam," I continued taking a seat on one of the sofas.

"I know," she smirked and reached inside of her handbag for an envelope. She tended me the package and I nodded my thanks. "This stalking shit is getting creepy," she declared and I was the one now smirking.

"I only wish to make sure she is well."

"Sure," she huffed as I opened it and look through every picture taken of Sookie for the past week.

One could say I was being a bit of a stalker but I couldn't help it. If I was denied her touch for the rest of her life, at the very least I wouldn't be denied her sight.

Pam flicked the television on and I sigh heavily. There was nothing more boring than to watch it and witness the monkey business of humans. Of course, that was only when I wasn't with my lover who had shown me a side of this television business I didn't think existed. I sometime missed our movie nights but that would be something I was going to take to my grave before I would admit it.

 _It seems the attack originated from within the hospital. Two Caucasian males attacked staff members before making their way to the street where the rampage continued. Preliminary reports indicate they were infected with the rabies virus that has mutated to infect humans. Authorities demand that the public stay away from New York until the situation is contained._

Pam blinked a couple times at the screen before turning to me. A chill pass through my spine, an overwhelming feeling of dread taking over.

"What do you think that is about?" She enquired as the muffled sound of heel clicking on the floor came for afar.

"I do not know but I assume we will soon find out."

The sound came louder and I knew from their speed and their intensity that Freyda was on her way to us and wasn't alone. Judging by the pressing cadence of her steps, I would venture a guess that she wasn't too pleased.

-zzzzz-

Day Z – (minus) 12 days

Dread that is the only word that had come to mind after the first report and it had never left me. The human Medias were only reporting half-truths on the television and on the radio, enough that I grew worried. If humans were not going to get proper warning, that meant many deaths, including Sookies.

"And where is this report from exactly Aiva?" the Queen asked immediately after its daily report on the human world and on the looping reports about a contagion.

Aiva stood for Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Authority. It was a computer, a very smart and very capable computer but that was it. It was in charge of the premise, our security as well as keeping us informed on the outside world not always having the luxury of leaving the castle. It had been very bizarre in the beginning to speak to a computer but eventually, like anything else, you grow accustom to it.

"New York my lord." She retorted with her monotone computer voice.

"Surely the human will contain this shit to stay in New York." Freyda shrugged looking out the window.

"Would you like to bet on it?" Pam asked with a grin, I could tell my child was dreaming of ripping her head off.

I couldn't blame Pam. To her, the sacrifice I had made for my lover had not been necessary if it wasn't for Freyda. By our laws, my child couldn't really do anything about it but I was sure she thought about revenge more often than not.

"The human media are not reporting the truth but you had 3 voicemails this morning from the King of New York, the Queen of Vermont and the king of Washington. When put together, I gathered the following facts; the human population cannot survive this disease. The human authorities are not doing enough to contain it and as a result, the vampire population will suffer. It is still unknown whether this affects the vampires." Aiva stated as matter of fact with absolutely no emotions in her voice. What else to expect from an artificial intelligence?

"Just great!" the Queen exclaimed and then turned to face me. She was keeping her distance just like she had promised me when I accepted to play pretence for the rest of the court. She had declared we were engaged and in love which of course had been not only a lie but a tough sale. Most of the court knew about my prior marriage to Sookie and it was hard to explain after all the risks I had taken throughout our relationship that I would just let her go without much thought.

Freyda was a good actress and deep down I wasn't too sure she was acting but of course, I had to. I didn't love Freyda and was with her because of the agreement and nothing else. At first, this had hurt her, I could tell in her eyes. Vampire or not, Freyda's weakness was her emotions. I had eventually made a deal with her that in exchange of playing house husband with her, she would not come near me when we did not have to pretend and that the only time we would have sex was on the night in the contract. She had thought about it but had eventually accepted the deal without much more thought to it.

"Aiva, please launch contingency program B.H immediately," the Queen ordered the AI before turning back to us to offer slim explanations as to what was going on. "It is time to go underground." She declared. This couldn't be good.

I was pretty sure if my blood was pumping through my veins, it would have frozen at her words. Taking to the grounds? Did she know something I didn't? It was an extreme measure that vampires had not taken since the Great War. For Freyda to demand that all vampires take to the ground was a survival move in times where our food source was depleted which wasn't the case here. She was making this call and strongly suggesting it to the rest of the American vampires based on what? A report that a bug was affecting humans in a New York hospital. On the assumption that the humans were not doing enough and wouldn't contain it? It seemed like a rush move and from where I was sitting a desperate uncalculated one. Why the other kingdom would even entertained the idea?

Unless she knew something I did not know.

-zzzz-

Day Z – 10 days

"Eric," the Queen demanded but I was no longer listening to her.

I had requested the chance to leave, to secure assets on her behalf before we were to go to the ground. She had refused both yesterday and today. I was growing desperate. Waiting too long, I knew I would be trapped in this castle until the Queen would allow the doors to open again.

New York was chaos but what was fascinating was that most human had no clue what was actually coming. Most towns went about their lives as if the world wasn't ending when in fact; it was heading in that direction. I still had no idea why the other Kingdom would do what Freyda was asking and why these over the top precautions were being taken, but I wasn't born yesterday and I knew Freyda had a lot more information than what she had shared with us.

I grew worried with each minute passing. It is not that I cared what was to happen to the human population and our food source but for every report the media omitted the truth was time wasted for Sookie to plan her survival. For all I knew, she had no idea what was coming her way and was still waitressing in the little dive bar that was Merlotte's. Humans couldn't be blame though; Vampires had taken control of their media centres and had ensured that the message was always the same, that everything was fine. One could think it was a bit counterproductive to send our food source to the slaughter house all at once but the reality was that it was a strategic move on my kind's behalf.

The official story to vampires was that we were going underground to protect ourselves against the bacteria but I knew this wasn't it. When I had inquired whether we were immune, the Queen said yes but nothing more. I spent hours strategizing trying to understand why such move but it was in vain. I was missing pieces of the puzzle and there was no way for me to extract the information from her brain.

The facts were simple according to her; vampires were to go underground as a defensive move. The human population would soon twinkle down and in order to protect our kind, we were to hide with enough humans with us to sustain ourselves and nothing more. There were promises of emerging when the world was less unstable but none of it made sense. If we were truly immune to this disease, why would we not help humans? They were indeed our food source.

Until I remember why vampires had come out of the coffin and why we were not ruling over humans like the old days; quantity. There were simply too many humans, we couldn't control all of them, the outnumbered us. What better way to even the playing field than a nice natural disease! And when the numbers would be low enough, the vampires would come out of the shadow, save the rest of the world and take over the human population who would already worshiped the vampires for saving them. Suddenly, it didn't seem so crazy to hide away for a while.

I also had a theory as per the origin of the disease. I couldn't be so sure it was in fact a natural one. I had enquired about it and was told that no one knew but I had been with Freyda long enough to know when she was lying. As I had pressed the matter, she had grown impatient with me and I had chosen to stop the inquisition abruptly.

"I am sick and tired of your feelings for that human. May she die out there!" she spit at me obviously trying to get a rise out of me.

The best way to piss your majesty was to do the exact opposite of what she was expecting. So naturally, every time I ignored her or did not react to something she had said, she would have a temper tantrum, the equivalent to what a three year old child would do to get a piece of candy. This time, wasn't different and she proceeded in cursing me and my lover.

I smirked. I loved it when she got angry. It never failed to remind me that one day, I would have the chance to break her neck. That day was coming, it was near, and I could feel it. Such day would be glorious.

"The bunker is underneath this castle. It connects with an underground train system with Texas. It is the best course of action and we are going down at sunrise, like it or not."

"I will not go underground." I simply said in defiance but she cut me off and said that I would.

I frown, she seemed so sure of her, something was off.

I scanned the room to see if we were still alone. There were no bodyguards and even if she tried to take me on, she knew I had nothing to lose and would just overpower her anyway. I heard a shuffle in the hallway and I moved silently towards her. I did not look back but instead just stared at her, ready to choke the life out of her. I reached forward but she smiled. Why?

Pam.

I felt a pang in my heart as soon as I reopened our bond. I always kept the bond close ever since I had signed the contract because I had wished for my child to not feel the emotional pain I was in but now at that very second, I regretted that choice. I only had 2 weaknesses in this world and she was one of them. Not having her around had been difficult, but closing the bond had been a beginner's mistake.

"Ah…. You feel her now do you?" she grinned. "I had not been certain at first that you had closed the bond but judging by the amount of torture she endured and the lack of response I had gotten from you, it had become clear you had..."

I growled so low, she took a step back.

"Now you do not have a chance but to come with me or your child dies." She said lightly as if she was talking about making tea.

She was correct; I no longer had a choice.

Day Z –(minus)11 days

I woke up stiff and smelling terrible. I had not had a shower in days and although I urgently needed one, it did not bother me. I was trapped like an animal and I couldn't stand it. The bunker was nothing short of a prison, with endless walls of steel and white floors as far as the eyes could see. The ceilings must have been at least 12 feet tall and the only light source was fluorescent lights that sometimes moved back and forth at the drafty winds that had made their way through the train tunnels. The bunker was very clinical with no personal touch anywhere every corner looking exactly like the previous one.

You could find the living quarters at one end of the bunker, the other wing separated by a large hallway. At the end of it were a giant door where we had first entered and the other, a similar door that gave to the train tunnels. I had not been able to venture out of the main hallway and our wing, other than when we had first come in and it was unknown why it had to be this way.

I had been assigned a room at the very end of our wing and no matter how I played it in my head, if we needed to leave in a hurry, we would be the very last one to reach either end of the main hallway.

Pam was waking up from her death and silently stirred in the small camp bed. Even though we couldn't see the sun down here, we somehow still could feel it. It was completely down now, and I sighed heavily wondering what Sookie would be doing at that moment.

"Do you require more blood?" I asked Pam but she shook her head.

She wasn't completely healed from her injuries that had been inflicted by the Queen. I growled at the thought of what had been done to her because I had initially refused to go in hiding. The truth was, I had no intention of staying here and one could say that Freyda might have won the battle, but she had not won the war. I was going to make her pay for what she had done; there was no doubt about it.

Pam got up from her bed and stared at me as if she was studying my every move. The skin on her cheeks was still missing but it didn't take away from her beauty in my opinion. She would always be beautiful to me.

She stared at me intensely and one could have found it uncomfortable but I welcomed her gaze. Pam didn't show a lot of her emotions but this kind of behaviour was her way to show concern. I knew what she was thinking; I could feel it through the bond. She was accusing me with her of betrayal by choosing Sookie, I had not chosen her.

"I got to find her Pamela." I whispered in defeat.

I knew she did not support my decision, I knew she did not want me to get out of the vault but every bone and muscle in my body seemed to contradict what little reason I had left. I couldn't ask Pam to approve of it, I couldn't ask her to understand, but she had a right to the truth.

"You may look at it as a death wish, and that is your right, but I won't stand here while the world fall apart and the love of my life is taken from me."

Aiva had reported disturbing news that morning. The contagion was not under control and the more she talked, the more it became obvious that Freyda had been right, this, whatever it was, was taking over. I had tried to understand why the vampires would have opted for going underground instead of fighting the plague but it was not my main concern.

"That has already happened Eric the day you agreed to married the cunt!" Pam replied between her teeth. "She is no longer yours and you know this. You have sacrificed 200 years for her. When will you just accept that meant you would never see her again? What does it matter whether she dies now or in 80 years?"

"She will need me."

"She had her chance." She answered me and I growled back.

Pam was not acting her normal self. She was defiant, borderline insubordinate. I couldn't blame her for questioning my sanity but she was toying with a fine line between welcomed concern and angry bullshit. I was growing bored of it and frustrated of her attitude no matter how right she was. She knew my feelings for Sookie, she could feel it too. Why was she fighting my like this? Did she not understand that living without knowing Sookie was alive was just not living at all? There was no doubt about what would be required of me to get out of here and to go to my lover. I had to assume this was the reason why Pam was fighting me tooth and nails. She knew what was required and she wasn't up for it; the Queen had to die.

"Even if you manage to kill her ass, you would still have to get through all her bodyguards and then get through Aiva. There is no way that AI is letting you go anywhere. Hell if she even heard us talk about killing Freyda she would shoot us on sight with her fancy laser beam."

She was referring to the incident a couple of days ago; one of the vampires whom had taken shelter with us here had panicked and had demanded to leave the bunker. Of course, he wasn't allowed and had attempted to kill the Queen on the spot. Beside the fact his attempt was not planned nor thought through, Aiva was all the Queen had needed for protection.

We were in the main hall way of the bunker. One of the steel walls had opened up and a small green dot had appeared. In the blink of an eye, it had shot through to form a line. It had moved quickly towards the vampire and had cut him in half before disappearing and letting the wall of steel close on it. My only thought at the time was "what the flying fuck" but then Aiva's voice had been heard and it became clear it was the bunker's defense system.

"But now that we know the beam exist, we can plan accordingly," I replied with a cock eyebrow.

"You have a death wish for the both of us." She said and I looked down. She was right. I was asking something tremendous of her, something that wasn't fair. I was being selfish and my heart ache at the thought of something happening to my child.

Maybe she was right; maybe I couldn't ask her that. I had indeed already sacrificed for my Sookie, giving her the freedom she had wanted, the divorce she had demanded. Why was I so obsessed with wanting to help her when she had made it clear she would never want my help again?

"I am sorry child." I said defeated as I sat on one of the chairs. "I love her" left my lips in a whisper but I know she caught it.

Day Z –(minus) 10 days

I watched as the bodies were entering the vault; dead vampires.

They were brought to the other side of the bunker where we did not venture. I did not ask their purpose here but as the small team of vampires transport the bodies one by one, I had to wonder whether this bunker was more than just a hiding place.

A vampire with a long white coat came out of the forbidden wing. He did not look at any of us and instead just instructed where the bodies had to be brought.

I had never seen him before but judging by the amount of blood on his white coat, I would have to guess he was either a doctor or a scientist.

Day Z –(minus) 9 days

More dead vampires. What was killing them? Pam stood beside me, having completely recovered from all her injuries; she was now back to normal. She too wondered what they were doing with these bodies. It had seemed as if every day brought a new group.

"Do you think it affects us?" she whispered in my ear in our native language.

She was referring to the virus or at least that is what had been reported. It affected humans by turning them into violent beings. One was not a problem, but a horde of angry and violent bodies was not a small task. It had always been vampire's greatest weakness and best kept secret; we were vulnerable to numbers. Humans did not have it in their natures to be organized enough to exterminate us but I supposed it was possible and as history had proven from time to time, sometimes they had a charismatic enough leader that allowed them to do just that no matter how short the period.

I shrugged, not having the answer to her question. It didn't happened often in my long centuries to be stumped, but I had to admit, I had no idea what was going on, and I had a terrible feeling about it.

Day Z –(minus) 8 days

I attempted to open the door to the forbidden room but it was locked. I could clearly hear screams from the inside but there was no way in.

As I walked away from the door, the yells and moans grew weaker and quieter until they were completely gone. The bunker, I guess, was well designed in that way that it isolated each side of it from each other.

"Eric?" I heard Freyda ask from behind me.

"What?" I replied.

There were no longer reasons for me to show her any respect. I wanted her dead and it was just a matter of time before I would rip her throat out. Since we had taken refuge underground, it was evident that she was vulnerable. Her escort were only hired; they could be bought or killed. She no longer had the power of having the outside courts at her disposal, many had stopped contact. One could guess if she was to disappear, no one would really know what happened to her and perhaps wouldn't even question it.

I turned to face her, not hiding the scowl on my face.

"I am sorry." She said as I felt a familiar pang on my neck: a needle.

She was one step ahead; I had not seen that coming.

Day Z –(minus) 7 days

I attempted to open one eye but the fluorescent light shining through my eye lid told me it wasn't time. I could hear moaning near me but my faculties were unable to focus on its target, or perhaps targets.

My fingers twitched, I could tell I was tied up but did not have enough strength to even test the restraints. She had out played me and I was now paying the price. But how did she know? How did she know I was planning on killing her?

I finally managed to open my eyes after a few attempts. Glimpses of images appeared: a doctor, another vampire dressed in black, a bright light, a restrained moaner. He was a human. I could smell him but he wasn't himself anymore, he was taken by that virus or was it a bacterium, I couldn't remember anymore.

I managed to focus on him to realize his eyes were blood shot, his jaw half ripped and his skin missing.

Freyda was not in the room, I couldn't sense her, but something told me she was near, watching and enjoying the spectacle.

"Mr. Northman." The doctor said when he realized I was awake and focusing on my surroundings.

I probe the bond with Pam to feel her status. She was in the room with me. She was ill and unconscious.

"What..:" I tried to articulate my question but I was unable.

"Now now, no talking." The doctor instructed and I frowned.

As the minutes pass by, I was regaining full capacity. My legs and my arms were restrained to the table and the reason why I could not move my head freely to take my surroundings in was that a strap was keeping my forehead from moving.

My senses grew acute and I felt Pam beside me, she was so close. The doctor moved towards her and injected her with something. I closed my fists and tried to break one of my restrains but it was in vain.

Pam immediately started to scream one of those chilling screams you never forget. I kept on tugging on the leather that was keeping me from helping her but I was so weak. I was completely useless as my child was yelling in agony. The bond made it clear that she was not only in pain but she was dying as well.

The doctor walked over to the infected human and tugged on its leash. He brought him over to Pam but I could no longer see what was happening having left my peripheral vision. He was standing just outside of it.

I heard someone enter the room, heels clicking on the ground, and I knew it was Freyda. She never came close enough for me to identify her but her scent filled the air.

Pam screamed again but this time it was different. She was scared. I heard her skin break and smelled her blood. What the fuck was going on? There was some chewing sound coming from her direction and I no longer heard anything from her. They were killing her.

"He is not affected by this. The bacteria took over her body but she is still herself and so is he." I heard the doctor say. "Now I will inject his blood into this human who will either stay unpassed by it or be cured by it. If the cure works, then the human will die anyway, his injuries are too important."

"Just hurry up and finish this." I heard her say.

As if her voice was all I needed, it fueled my body in to a rage. My child was not going to die because of her and we sure would not be the subject of their fucking experiment. It was now clear she had not out played me; she had just chosen to conduct some kind of experiment.

A low and deep growl left my lips as I ripped one of my arms free. I immediately took care of my strapped forehead and in a matter of seconds, I was completely free. I looked around and Freyda had already escaped but it did not matter at this second, she was still in the bunker and she was going to pay for what she had done.

I turned to my child and found the human feeding on her. It didn't take me long to push him away and to secure him at the other end of the room. I had plan for it but now there was a more pressing matter.

I walked slowly over to the doctor who was now begging for his life. He was explaining that Freyda had ordered him to experiment, to find out whether there was a cure and see if the maker and child bond was affected by the disease. He continued about my age and if my blood was a cure, it would be the strongest here but it didn't matter what he had to say, he had tried to kill my child.

I reached for one of his arm and ripped it off as if he was just a doll. He yelled in terror as I brought him over to the human who was already reaching for him and all I had to do was to gently push him in his direction.

The human proceeded in eating him alive which I would have found fascinating if I wasn't busy getting my child free. There was an explosion sound from far away and the lights turned off before being replaced with green glow from the emergency lighting. I finally managed to free Pam and lifted her off the bed bridal style.

Aiva was announcing something but it wasn't clear. Telecommunication must have been down. I heard a small trap open and gas filled the room. Within seconds, everything went dark.

Day Z –(minus) 5 days

Blood.

I could smell it, I could feel it, I could see it. My entire body was pulsing with the heart that had been feeding it.

Blood.

It was everywhere repainting the room with its various flagrance, with its beauty. The hospital instruments had been turned around, the floor was bathed in blood and with piles of dead bodies groaning and moaning back to life, a life that didn't belong, a life that had nothing to do with my undead one.

One of the corpses grabbed my ankle as I stared at its face showing me its teeth. What a peculiar thing to be a witness to. The hunted now hunters themselves. This once human had no longer any fear of vampires, it was unclear whether it even knew the difference between a human and it but it stared back at me with all its rage and all its survival instincts. As soon as it reached to bite me, I brought my foot to its temple and applied enough force that it wasn't able to move. It clawed at me, gnawing for a taste of my flesh it would never have. I stared at it, tilting my head sideways.

This was it? The famous bacteria turning humans into hordes of hungry, flesh eating corpses?

The piles of bodies started to shift slightly. Despite the room's darkness, I could tell every single one of them had in fact, a heart that no longer beat and that their body were slowly decomposing while the rest of their function seemed to work just the same.

I couldn't pretend I understood what this meant, from the report Freyda had received, vampire scientists had been experimenting with humans. It was unknown how these bacteria had come to life. Perhaps a scientific experiment gone wrong or just a giant fuck you from Mother Nature, but one thing had been clear, Vampires were not going to help the human population right away. It was a general belief that the human population had grown out of control, forcing us to be mainstream in order to survive. A bit of ground leveling wouldn't hurt our kind, or so they said.

I pushed my foot harder into the skull of the unfortunate corpse and as I inserted my foot further into its brain, only then had it stopped trying to take a bite at my ankle. It was brain dead, suggesting that despite not having a heart beating, the brain had still been the sole controller of the bodily function of it.

The pile was no longer one, each of the corpses rising from the dead like a bad horror movie that was about to get worst. They stared at me for perhaps a split second before lunging at me.

Fighting one of these fuckers was nothing; I had seen plenty in my days but having a group of them attacking me all at once proved difficult. I ripped the throat of one before severing its head from its body using all the strength I could manage while another one grabbed onto my arm. I shook it off, propelling its body on to the opposite wall. 2 more made their way to me as they stepped over their fallen brothers and sisters. I had to leave this room before I was overwhelmed by the quantity of dead bodies.

I left the room running while they snapped and launched at me. As soon as I was out, I closed the doors behind me. I hurt the click of the lock I had no engaged and frown. I raised my head to look around until I noticed the camera in the corner and the green light that indicated Aiva was watching me.


End file.
